In today's telecommunication environment, an incoming call conventionally contains a Caller Id as an identifier of the calling party to the called party. The Caller Id enables the called party or the telecommunications carrier to block the calling party using do-not-call lists or by presenting the name of the calling party to the called party's handset. However, multiple services allow the calling party to fake or spoof the Caller Id, thus rendering the Caller Id useless and tricking the called party into accepting the call. In such circumstances, the call recipient has limited options to either accept or cancel the incoming call as no additional information is passed with the call. Thus, when a personal cellphone receives a call from an unknown number, the called party's immediate reaction may be to not accept the call. Unfortunately, important calls can be missed. On the other hand, when a business receives a call from any number, the call is immediately answered and the business is forced to handle a number of undesirable calls.
An alternative to Caller Id is desired that enables the called party to determine whether or not to accept or deny the incoming call. The systems and methods described herein address these and other needs in the art.